Mulish

Once, while driving along St. Francis Drive in Santa Fe, we passed a sandwich board sign on the sidewalk that read, "Joe Lucero's Hair". My passenger remarked that every time he saw that sign it prompted him to think, "Yeah, what about it?"

That pretty much sums up the way I feel about the About Me page. Yeah? What about me? What can I share that will let you know that we may not be so different? Is it important to be alike, to share some sort of common thread? Well, I'll share a few things with you and you can make up your own mind.

My name is Roberta, I was born in '63, the youngest of five children. I adored my oldest sister who was a good 12 years older than me. She saw the Beatles live at Hollywood Bowl with my mom. I didn't. I was too young. My first concert was Iggy Pop. Or maybe The Kinks, it's all a blur now.

My soulmate through childhood was a dog, if that is possible. Her name was Heidi. She was a Kerry Blue terrier and she loved me and I loved her. I still think of her nearly every day.

My most memorable Christmas was the one when I was six or seven and I received a turquoise blue typewriter (manual, naturally), a navy blue suitcase with white daisies on it and a little house tent. I identified strongly with all of these things and find that I have carried these things with me, albeit in a different manifestation, through life.

I am married to my best friend. His name is Michael and we move a lot (suitcase), though we've now settled in Central Texas (little house tent) and I try my very best to write every day (turquoise blue typewriter). We have three dogs and a flock of seven hens and a rooster. Four of the hens, we have discovered, are outright freeloaders. No eggs, no nothing. We love them all - dogs and birds alike.

This blog is not my first rodeo, as they are wont to say in Texas. It may be, however, my first true blog, the first blog I've kept that resonates with me. I keep it to track my path to a writing life. A life in which, creativity, and writing in particular, come first.

There is a voice in my heart, a stirring that tells me that writing is the answer. It may not be writing for publishing, I don't know yet. I only know that I am compelled to write and that I believe it will somehow move my life forward in a way that I cannot possibly imagine now. This year, in 2012, I decided that it is due time to honor that voice, that stirring in my heart. So this is it. This is the result. Me, as mulish and stubborn as I can be.

It's taken years to let go, it's taken years to quit planting my hooves in the ground. I have everything I love with me and I think I am finally brave enough to traverse the rocky terrain of a writing life.

Thank you for coming along for he ride. I am grateful.